Pericles takes the Prince of Tyre on a Mediterranean adventure full of riddles, betrayals…and pirates! From confident leader to yearning lover to seeker of meaning, our hero in this Shakespearean tragicomedy will be brought to life on the CSC stage by the inventive Fiasco Theater, who have previously delighted New York audiences with inspired interpretations of Cymbeline and Into the Woods. The Fiasco Theater ensemble brings music, poetry, and a completely new way of seeing one of the Bard’s most complex characters.
Fear no more: Fiasco’s Pericles is a revelation, a revivification of New York theater’s most essential ensemble and a redemption for a play seldom produced and even less seldom praised. Things, though, do start out somewhat unconvincingly. Pericles is thought to be a collaboration between Shakespeare and George Wilkins, an abusive innkeeper whom scholars think probably was running a brothel, and it’s in the rather un-Shakespearean first act (typically attributed to Wilkins) that Fiasco unsurprisingly finds the greatest challenge.
Pericles courses along, always accessible, but it seldom leaps off the stage into something that enchants. An angry sea that sweeps up Pericles arrives on stage as an enormous rippling bolt of blue fabric. It’s an effective, but familiar, trick. In the end, there are laughs, bursts of song, and a sweet family reunion. While it takes a bit of divine summoning for things to work out for Pericles, fine-tuned ensemble acting gets the job done for Fiasco.
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Premiere Production Off-Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2024 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Music in a Play | Ben Steinfeld |
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